Worcester Closes Walmart After 23 People Get Coronavirus

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester city officials shut down a Walmart Supercenter in the city on Wednesday after almost two dozen people connected to the store were diagnosed with coronavirus.

The first case connected to the store was found on April 8, City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said, but the bulk of the 23 infections were detected over the last week.

The store will only be allowed to reopen after a deep cleaning, and after all approximately 400 employees at the store have been tested for coronavirus. City officials have been in touch with the Walmart corporate office to get testing in place.

Worcester officials found out about the cluster through a social media post, Medical Director Michael Hirsh said. When people test positive for coronavirus, they typically list their home address, not where they work — and that can delay health officials linking cases to a single location, Hirsh said.

Hirsh said that the Walmart shutdown was his first ever emergency closure. A Walmart spokesperson described it differently, saying the store was set to close on Thursday, but "after engaging and coordinating with local officials, we adjusted the time of the closure a few hours earlier, to [Wednesday]."

The citywide coronavirus total rose by 76 on Wednesday to a pandemic total of 1,986. Augustus also said that now 102 people have died at Saint Vincent Hospital and the UMass Memorial Medical Center combined. At those two hospitals, 269 people are being treated for coronavirus, and 104 of them are in intensive care.

Hirsh said that there may be another week of increasing case numbers and hospitalizations before numbers start to head downward. Hirsh said it's possible the Walmart could reopen as soon as this weekend following the cleaning and testing.

"We're trying not to be as reactive as we have been, we're trying to be proactive," he said. "That's why this shutdown was necessary."